Conflict and Violence

Almost one third of the world's population live in conflict-affected low-income countries. Yet little is known about the effects of conflict on household welfare, behaviour and poverty. The Conflict and Violence Research Cluster is developing new insights into how people live and interact in contexts of conflict and violence, and what institutions best support them.

Our research focuses on important micro-level local dynamics of violent conflict and the choices and constraints facing individual people and communities, which are shaped by wider political and development dynamics and processes and longer economic transitions. We seek to influence policy and programming processes, through the development of relevant policies and approaches for working in and on conflict and through building partnerships with development practitioners.

Our research will help develop policies and practices that strengthen people’s efforts to secure their own lives and livelihoods. Our research themes include:

This project aims to establish a long-term partnership between the IDS, Save the Children UK (SCUK) and Save the Children International Rwanda (SCI-R) to analyse, evaluate and scale-up (in partnership with the Government of Rwanda) a unique holistic programme (First Steps) that supports families of children aged 0-3 in the district of Ngororero in Rwanda. More details

Prof. Patricia Justino is working on the World Development Report 2017 as an advisor to the lead author of the chapter on "Security, Conflict and the Absence of Violence", as well as producing a background paper for the WDR chapter. More details

In this consultancy, Marinella Leone is developing evidence to support arguments and recommendations made in the ActionAid report exploring the interlinkages between women’s economic inequality/ neoliberal policies and Violence against women and girls (VAWG). More details

Under this consultancy, Patricia Justino will (i) co-lead, with the Bank team, research and authorship for a background paper (and related publications) on drivers of conflict and fragility in Pakistan. More details

The project will produce a robust evidence base on the opportunities and limitations of social media data on violence reporting to inform UK emergency and crisis response, in the context of violence monitoring in Kenya. More details

This project will support collaboration and engagement between IDS and the Universidad de los Andes in conducting a unique three-year research programme on the effect of violent conflict on institutional change. More details

The aim of this project is to evaluate the association between types, locations, timing, and amounts of development aid and the likelihood, escalation, severity, spread, duration, and recurrence of violence, spanning the phases before, during, and after conflict. More details

Patricia Justino will (i) co-lead research and authorship for a background paper (and related publications) on household risk, behaviour, and policy options in the Afghanistan context of conflict and, (ii) for a social safety net impact evaluation, contribute to instrument design, analysis, and interpretation of results, especially with respect to conflict-related issues. More details

Bruno Martorano and Patricia Justino will analyse group-based inequalities in Mexico and write a paper on the topic of ‘The impact of the recent crisis in Mexico on economic and political inequalities among minorities’ that discusses and advances an argument about patterns and trends. More details

Providing an in-depth understanding of determinants of domestic violence in Ghana, to strengthen advocacy and advance legal, policy and programmatic interventions aimed at countering domestic violence in Ghana. More details

IDS researchers have been commissioned to generate knowledge and evidence-based, actionable recommendations to governments and other stakeholders on the nexus between support to food and nutrition security and building resilient livelihoods, peace processes and stability, and how to integrate gender issues into appropriate policies and actions related to food and nutrition security in situations where conflict exists, has recently ceased, or is likely to reoccur. More details

The aim of this project is to develop training videos for urban police that can be accessed via mobiles. This kind of platform allows the videos to be centrally updated, accessed (or ‘pushed’) on demand, and also allow for an innovative addition to police performance monitoring. More details

The proposed research attempts to contribute to our knowledge of VAW incidence and prevalence as well as responses, coping strategies and mechanisms of support in the five governorates in Gaza 2015. More details

This project aims to improve access to security and justice institutions for Women and to strengthen accountability of the security services at the level of the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Interior. More details

Training and Mobility Network for the Economic Analysis of Conflict (TAMNEAC) is a Marie Curie Initial Training Network, funded by the European Commission within the 7th Framework Programme. More details

This project will develop understanding of how and under what conditions GEP has or has not contributed to improved humanitarian outcomes. It will accumulate an evidence base that can be harnessed to inform decision makers' discussions in the area of GEP, and inform the design of gender-responsive humanitarian interventions. More details